KC firefighter with 6 DWIs gets 5 years in prison for repeated probation violations
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge revokes probation, sentences Kansas City firefighter John Speer to five years.
- Court cited repeated probation violations tied to a 2023 DWI; six DWIs date to 1999.
- Defense sought continued treatment; judge imposed custody for noncompliance.
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The KCFD Files
A series of stories highlights Kansas City Fire Department employees who have been charged with serious crimes — including fatal crashes, a felony drug case and multiple DWIs — and were allowed to remain on the job, some for years.
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Saying “enough is enough,” a Clay County judge on Tuesday revoked the probation of a longtime Kansas City firefighter who has had six DWI cases and sentenced him to five years in prison.
Clay County Circuit Court Judge Shane Alexander said it was crystal clear that John Speer had struggled to follow the rules of his probation. And the judge noted that he’d warned Speer at the last violation hearing that he wasn’t getting another chance.
“Less than a week after that conversation, here we go again,” Alexander said. “No compliance.
“It will not be tolerated any further. Enough is enough.”
Speer, who has been with the Kansas City Fire Department for nearly 20 years, was before the court for probation violations reported Nov. 24 and Dec. 1 in connection with a 2023 felony DWI case. Speer pleaded guilty in November 2024 and received five years’ probation, but had racked up nearly a dozen violations since February.
Speer, 48, appeared Tuesday afternoon in handcuffs and wearing a striped gray jail jumpsuit. He’d been held in custody since his recent arrest on the latest probation violations.
His attorney, Shawn Blair, asked the judge to continue Speer’s probation and allow him to continue in treatment court. Blair said the recent violations occurred because Speer missed a Nov. 12 counseling appointment and was 35 minutes late to a Dec. 1 treatment session.
Speer was late to the session, Blair said, because he was at work and the person who was supposed to relieve him was late.
“He made the choice to put his job and the community above himself in that situation,” Blair said. “He was protecting the community when he committed the violation.”
Blair said while he was disappointed that Speer had received two more violations, he wanted the court to know how far his client had progressed.
“He hasn’t had any alcohol in quite some time,” Blair said, and has been on continuous alcohol monitoring.
Blair acknowledged that Alexander had warned Speer at the previous hearing that he wasn’t getting any more chances.
“We’re here today … asking that he be provided one more,” Blair said.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREFor the past several months, The Star has been rolling out an ongoing project revealing how KCFD firefighters with criminal records — including violent offenses — have remained on the job, often shielded from serious discipline by a powerful labor union.
To streamline the reporting process and provide a better picture of how widespread the issue might be, The Star built a custom AI tool that automatically searched public court records for hundreds of names of current and former Kansas City Fire Department employees. It flagged matches with criminal cases and provided links to the case numbers.
Reporters could then look up the cases and verify that the individuals worked for KCFD. The tool saved reporters an enormous amount of time compared to using only traditional search methods.
Among the stories that were developed as a result:
–A firefighter charged with sodomy and rape in 2023 who then pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
–A KCFD captain who remained on the job for more than a year after being arrested a fourth time for drunken driving.
–A former longtime Kansas City firefighter who assaulted a fellow firefighter at Station 27, 6600 E. Truman Road, last year in an incident that co-workers said ended when they pulled him off the victim.
–A fire captain facing charges of first-degree harassment and assault for allegedly striking a fellow firefighter forcefully in the rectum, causing severe pain that required medical treatment.
It’s important to note that AI didn’t write a single word of these stories. That was the work of the reporters. But what it did was help us take a broad idea and quickly gather evidence to support it. And that process allowed the journalists to focus on deeper, more human reporting.
Readers should watch for more stories from this project in the coming weeks.
‘I have failed miserably’
Speer then addressed the court.
“Please forgive me,” he began haltingly. He told the judge it was no secret that he’d made some “bonehead” mistakes.
“I have failed miserably,” he said. “I have asked for help and I continue to ask for help, Your Honor.”
He said he only wants to do what is best for his boys.
“And I continue to stumble,” Speer said. “I am struggling. I can’t put my finger on it mentally why I struggle so much.”
He said he understood what the judge told him at the last hearing about what would happen if he failed again.
“I’m scared, Your Honor,” he said. “I don’t want to lose everything that I’ve worked so hard for since 2020. I have failed. I don’t think prison should be the answer, but if that’s what you have to do, I accept it.”
When Speer finished, Alexander said that none of the probation violations had caused him to believe that Speer was a danger to the community.
“But at some point,” he said, “you reach a cumulative effect of all the violations.”
Alexander said he’d had a firefighter in his court before, on a drug case, and he went through the process without a single violation.
“So it’s not being a firefighter that caused the violations,” he told Speer. He said he wasn’t accepting the reason Speer gave for being late to his last counseling session.
“A moment ago, I heard the defendant decided to put the community above self, and that’s why he committed a violation,” Alexander said. “That’s ridiculous. He decided once again he was not going to follow the instructions of the court.”
The Star reported about Speer’s case on Monday as part of an ongoing series about Kansas City firefighters who have been convicted of serious crimes but remained on the job.
Five months after his February 2023 DWI arrest in Clay County, The Star found, Speer was arrested for DWI in Henry County. Court documents said his minor children were riding with him at the time, and his speed was clocked at 87 mph.
Despite six DWI cases, Speer had avoided serious prison time and was still on the job, drawing a 2025 salary of $91,814, according to the city.
Cases began in 1999, span four counties
Court records show that Speer’s DWI cases date back to 1999, when he was found guilty in Nodaway County Circuit Court of driving while intoxicated. Since then, he’s had another case in Nodaway County, two in Clay County, one in Platte County and one in Henry County.
The current Clay County case arose when Speer was arrested on Feb. 4, 2023, near the intersection of Liberty Drive and Wilshire Boulevard. The charge: DWI-aggravated offender, a class D felony.
Speer was placed on house arrest, but his request to leave home for work was granted. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 12, 2024, court records show, and was sentenced to five years in prison. The judge then suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on five years’ probation.
Speer also was ordered to serve 60 days’ shock time in the Clay County Detention Center. After that, he was to wear a device for a minimum of 90 days that continuously monitors alcohol levels in the body.
The judge approved Speer’s request for work release while he was in jail. But one week after his sentencing, the work release was revoked at the request of the jail.
Three days later, on Nov. 22, 2024, Speer’s attorney filed a motion requesting his work release be reinstated, saying, “Defendant has an essential job as he is employed by the Kansas City Fire Department.” The online court docket doesn’t show the results of that request.
Speer was released from jail in January 2025. On Feb. 4, he was arrested for a probation violation — consumption of alcohol. At a Feb. 18, 2025, hearing, the court found him in violation and continued his probation with some modifications.
That began a steady stream of probation violations, arrests and hearings that continued to this day. Probation violation reports were filed March 31, May 5, May 28, July 28, Sept. 8, Sept. 23, Oct. 20, Nov. 3, Nov. 24 and Dec. 2. Each time, Speer was found to be in violation and his probation was continued subject to some modifications.
At one point — on May 8 — Speer’s then-attorney filed a motion asking to withdraw as his counsel, saying that he “can no longer ethically continue to represent the Defendant.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 7:10 PM.
